Category Archives: spiritual growth

January 14, 2018 · 5:34 pm

Vain Worship–The Opposite of True Worship

Truth is free from error, by definition. The Father is searching for “true worshipers.” Christ said, “The true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4: 23-24). You want to get God’s attention? Start repenting of error filled worship and get into worshiping Him in a true way, and He will definitely take notice of you. Because He is seeking out somebody like you–somebody who will get rid of the errors and get into the true way of worship.

Christ taught us that our worship of the Father must not only be spiritual in nature, but also full of truth and free from error. Since He is the truth, our worship of Him must be grounded in truth, or it becomes “vain worship.” Vain worship is fruitless, futile worship. There is no profit in it; it affects nothing. God tells us to repent of error filled worship. This is part of “continuing steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine” of repentance from dead works.

For vain worship happens when erroneous concepts about God are taught by the preachers, pastors, and priests. When natural men concoct doctrines out of the thin air of their imaginations, vain worship is born. “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” They disregard God’s words and teach unregenerate man’s traditions (Mark 7: 7-8). Their imaginations become doctrines, and these talking points become traditions, and then finally these false traditions become commandments for the masses to obey. This is error-filled vain worship.

Some Examples of Vain Worship

Churchianity is rife with false doctrines. Its foundation lies rotting on the sand. They say that repentance occurs when a sinner feels sorry for their sins and accepts Christ as their personal savior. Sorrow for sinful past actions is a good thing, but “godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation” (II Cor. 7: 10). The sinner wants to change his ways, but the preachers won’t tell them how He effects that change in their hearts.

They have prospective Christians being baptized in water as a mandatory action before joining the church. But they don’t teach them that the real baptism happens when the old sinful self is immersed into Christ’s death. The sinner’s old heart and spirit must die with Christ and be buried with Him, and be raised with Him through belief in His resurrection. This is the truth that we should rejoice in and worship in! This is true repentance from sin. But does anyone ever speak of our escape from sin and sinning, symbolized in water baptism (Rom. 6: 1-12)? Sadly, no. We all should ask the preachers, “Why aren’t you teaching Romans 6? Just read it aloud to the people, and let the Spirit reveal His truth to those that can receive it.”

Then there’s the matter with being “born again.” They say that feeling sorry and “coming down to the front” in an altar call is being born again. But there can be no new birth without the old seed of man’s sin nature dying first. Christ said, “He that loses his life for my sake and the kingdom’s sake will save it.” There has to be a losing of one’s old sinful life before one can be “born again” or born from above, which is being born of that incorruptible seed, the word of God” (I Pet. 1: 23).

Furthermore, they teach that “faith” is us believing God’s word—accent on “us” doing the believing. They say to the young Christian, “You gotta have faith,” as if that person’s faith is a different commodity than the one that God has. There is only one faith; the Spirit in Paul made that clear in Ephesians 4: 3-5. The true faith is “the faith of the Son of God.” It is His faith. When we receive Christ’s Spirit we receive His belief system; we now possess in our hearts the very same faith/belief that Christ displayed in the gospels!

It is not, “I have faith in God.” But rather it is, “God’s faith now is in me!” Paul gives us the secret that he lived by: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2: 20). Paul was dead, yet alive with Christ living in his earthly body. And the life on earth that he was living, he lived by Christ’s faith. Nobody else’s. Notice that Paul did not say, “I live now in this flesh body because of my faith in God.” No.

Newsflash! The Spirit of Christ is not just living in apostles like Paul; Christ lives in our hearts, too!

We are told by Christ to worship the Father “in spirit and in truth.” But the Christianity of the churches lies seething in error taught today by their preachers, pastors, and priests. These false concepts prevent sincere Christians from worshiping in truth. You cannot worship God in truth if your mind is full of error. When we comprehend that the Father is the Spirit of Truth, then we will realize that no room exists for error in His house of worship. And we are His house.

His Love Is Greater than Falsehoods about Him

And yet, despite the false teachings about our King and Savior, His love still touches hearts. The story of Him giving up His earthly life as a ransom for us all reaches down deep into the core of our existence. When we glimpse that inscrutable, boundless love—the greatest love the world has ever heard of—it still pierces harden hearts and leaves an indelible imprint. Today, at this very moment while you read these words, Christ’s story is touching thousands in spite of all the false concepts and traditions about Him.

After all, He is Love Incarnate and is come down from above, filled to overflowing with abundant mercy upon all who opens their heart to Him. No matter the dastardly sin nor the craven crime, He will touch all who come to Him sincerely. Even as He prayed for His mocking torturers, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” That’s our King; that is who He is.

His love calls many, but He chooses but a few to fulfill the spiritual life cycle and be His elect; they are chosen to grow to full maturity during these latter days. When you read the gospels, you will hear Christ speaking to those destined to be “conformed to the image” of the Son of God. Christ does not dumb the message down. It is open to all; “whosoever will may come.” That’s the God we serve.

But He now commands us to learn of Him. Learn the true path, the uncharted narrow path that the eagle of Rome has not seen. The time has come to put away childish things—things that will stunt our spiritual growth, things that will prevent us from becoming like Peter, John and Paul, things that will block us from becoming fit to inherit the earth upon His return to this sad, corrupt globe.

When Christ returns to earth, little children of God will not be admitted into Christ’s inner circle where He will assign His manifested sons and daughters their duties for the rulership of the planet.

If we want to be one of these 100 fold over comers, it is time to put away the childish desires for oneself. It is time to seek Him and His purpose and plan and not material things that will all waste away. It is time to lay hold of the plow that will turn this world over, instituting His righteous government in its stead. It is time to quit playing church and begin to repent of the errors in our worship. For He is the only hope for the survival of mankind. Our destiny is to be used by Him to save the world. He is seeking a people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. When He returns, will He find us doing that?       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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December 10, 2017 · 10:59 pm

The Cross Experience, Repentance, and the Kingdom of God

You are a Christian. You want to win souls to Christ. But what is the exact message that you need to deliver? Christ is our example. What did He say to them?

Christ did not mince words. The first words out of His mouth were these: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Abrupt, perhaps. Straight to the point. Yet that short message is packed with meaning. He is saying, You must repent of your sins because God’s kingdom is right here, right now, waiting for you to enter. But you must make a spiritual entrance. If you do not change your old ways, you will miss this opportunity to be with Me in My kingdom, for I am its King.

The Spirit of Christ in the apostle John continues explaining what He is talking about. Unless you are born from above—born again—you cannot see nor enter the spiritual kingdom of God. This is being born of the Spirit. Except a man be born again [born from above], he cannot see the kingdom of God…Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3: 3-5.

Everybody has heard that, but few know what it means. In order to be born of the Spirit, thereby guaranteeing your entrance into His kingdom, there must be a dying of the old seed within us. And that old seed is the old heart, the old Adamic sinful nature. “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12: 24).

Our old sin nature is like a bad seed that keeps producing sinful actions. And there is only one way to rid ourselves of it, and that is to surrender it to the death of the cross with Christ. That will bring the change of heart when we believe that He plants a new righteous seed in our hearts. This new seed germinates by faith in His resurrection. It sprouts forth love, joy, and peace. This is the born again experience. It comes out of repentance from sin. When a man gets this right, then he will have seen and entered the kingdom of God.

The Cross Experience

Many preachers speak about Christ suffering and dying on the cross for us. They say that He was our substitute; they say to just believe in His death and resurrection and you are saved. Many speak of this, but few explain what God requires of us concerning the cross. Just acknowledging Christ’s death is not enough to get rid of the old sinful nature. The old nature that we are born with has to die, or it will keep sprouting up. That’s why so many people back slide into sin. They back slide because their old sin nature is still there.

What the preachers fail to realize is that when Christ died on the cross, mankind’s old sinful nature died with Him. We are to examine ourselves. God is now asking, Has your old sin nature died on the cross with Christ? As professing Christians, have you laid down willingly your old sinful life, letting it die with Christ? Or have you just felt sorry for your sinful ways and “walked the aisle” like they encouraged you to do? Most mistake this experience as being “born again.” It is good to feel sorrow for the sinful way we have lived. “Godly sorrow leads us to repentance.” However, it is not repentance from sin (II Cor. 7: 10).

To the Cross

Godly sorrow leads you to the cross, the spiritual place of your repentance, which is the first of the apostles’ doctrine. Next, you must realize that Christ took upon Himself the sins of all mankind, and He died as a lost man. For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. II Cor. 5: 21.

When Christ died on the cross, the sin of all mankind died with Him. In God’s eyes, everyone’s  old sinful self died when He died. He could take all the sins of the whole world on Himself because He is the only man in history who was perfect–a perfectly sinless human being. He was the only One pure enough to be the sacrificial “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). He was the only One pure enough to wash away your sin and mine.

This is how the shedding of His blood cleanses us of all sin. The life is in the blood. When Christ bled out on the cross, the life of sin, the strength of sin, the force of sin died. That is the power of the blood of Christ—because sin’s life force, sin’s blood, drained out, leaving sin lifeless within us. God just requires us to believe it, to believe His word about it. It is through belief that we become new creatures whose life force is restored by the power of His resurrection.

Our old nature died with Him on the cross. It is a spiritual death, not a physical one. Our old selves are already dead in God’s eyes. Why would any one knowing this continue to go on sinning? “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And they won’t come to the light lest their “deeds should be discovered” (John 3: 19-20).

But I Am Baptized

Yet, some believe that after they are baptized in water, somehow mystically they are okay. But baptism is an outward symbol of a spiritual event called the cross experience. Do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6: 3-6.

Our sin nature died on the cross. We are free! Free from the guilt, the shame, the mental torture, the indignity, the pain, and the fear. Free!

Sin is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, and it is the written record of what the old sinful nature can and will do (I John 3: 4). Sinning is the old nature still manifesting itself through actions that break the law. “And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5). By dying with Him, we are freed from the bondage of sinning!

Free! Free from sin and sinning! Free now to grow spiritually to the point where we will bear much fruit like Peter, James, John and Paul. Free! Are you kidding me? Believe this truth in Christ, and you’ll be walking in a new life, freed from sin, for He has given us a new heart (Ezek. 18: 31).

This is true repentance. This is being born again of His incorruptible seed, the word of God (I Peter 1: 23). By faith we have to reckon our old self dead and gone with Christ on the cross, and also reckon ourselves alive unto God by faith in Christ’s resurrection. He said it; we believe it, and now we walk in its light. He gave His word on this. He is way ahead of us. He already sees us as righteous before Him. He is just waiting on His elect to believe His word, to believe like He believes. He with great patience waits for His chosen ones to awake unto righteousness, thus fulfilling His purpose of reproducing Himself.

This freedom from sin and sinning is the fruit of repentance wrought at the cross. It is the key to being born again and entering into His kingdom. This is why, to win souls, Christ spoke these words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{If you liked this article, hit the “like” button. Please make a comment. I will answer them all. And be sure to send for my latest book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect; it is totally free. Just send me your mailing address to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com If you appreciated this article, you will be thrilled with the new book. I wrote it for you. You need this book if you want to grow spiritually and be like Peter, James, John, and Paul.
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November 25, 2017 · 3:59 pm

Seeing and Entering the Kingdom of God

Oh, how we need the Prince of Peace to return! Our hearts break when we see a toddler’s legs reduced to jelly in a Syrian minefield, when we see a sobbing volunteer who could not save her. Oh, how we need Him to come and rule with a rod of iron the forces who have strangled the earth with merciless savagery! We need His righteous judgement on the masters of war, the rulers of darkness. Oh, how we need His Love to rise like the sun across the blood-soaked earth, and with its light begin to heal our wounds and dry our tears. We here on this crimson plain ask You to come back soon. We need your kingdom to come. Come back and heal us. Take away our fears of each other. Banish hatred from the land. Sow in its stead tender grains of love and peace. Everlasting Father, please help us. We won’t make it without your touch. We won’t make it without your righteous government coming to earth.

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With a broken spirit, we will begin to see the kingdom of God after being born from above (translated “born again” in the KJV). We then may enter the kingdom of God after being born of water and of the Spirit (John 3: 3-5).

We receive a new heart and new spirit, and this is the start of His kingdom within. For now a portion of the King’s Spirit dwells inside of our hearts. He begins His rule within us. Our desires change for the better. We are less and less selfish; we begin to think of others instead of ourselves. When He is ruling in our hearts, the kingdom is present in us. His Spirit of Love enters our hearts, and God’s reproduction of Himself in us begins. The kingdom of God is the spiritual and physical location where this reproduction is taking place.

The kingdom of God starts small like a tiny grain of belief in Christ in a person’s heart. Then this little light, this little seed of faith grows as others are won to His cause. But they will only seek Him desperately when their creature comforts are taken away. Then they will find  Him. It was always so. As more respond to the kingdom message, then it grows into a nation, which is Christ’s body of believers. Inside them, Love (God) is growing and maturing by His Spirit within them. Then this kingdom goes national, international, worldwide, galactic and universal.

The Spirit in Isaiah speaks eloquently of the King of this Kingdom: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (9: 6-7). The underlined and bold words prove that the Kingdom of God is a government with political as well as religious overtones because it institutes peace and not war.

Let us dig deeper into this passage. Everyone agrees that the “child” referenced above is Jesus Christ, Yahshua the Messiah. But let us see what the Spirit says about His kingdom. The kingdom of God is a “government.” And it is Christ’s government, for He is its sovereign ruler. He shoulders all of the responsibility of rulership. He is called “The everlasting Father” because the Father Yahweh resides fully in Him. He is called “The Prince of Peace” because through His rule, 1,000 years of peace will permeate this planet. And there will be no end to Christ’s government and peace, for He will be “upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom.” Christ will rule here on earth with righteous judgement and justice forever. The zeal of Yahweh will make it all happen.

Being a Citizen in His Kingdom

The Kingdom of God at present a spiritual one. Upon Christ’s return to assume His throne and rule, it will add a political dimension, for He will rule all nations. For now, to be a part of His government/kingdom, we must give up our earthly life with its lusts, desires, and aspirations for self. That is what it costs to be a citizen in His kingdom. Then we must replace our petty desires with His desires. We must take Christ’s yoke upon us and pull the plow with Him, never looking back.

What are we plowing with Christ? He’s plowing up the whole earth in order to plant His righteous word everywhere. Unregenerate man is the ground that is plowed and then planted. When the Sower begins to sow the seed, only the broken ground will receive the seed (Matt. 13). The broken ground is a broken heart and a contrite spirit in a humbled person. That is the ground that is able to receive the seed, the word of God.

Many nations and peoples will flow into His government. And He will bring some of us to His throne room. Those chosen for this honor will sit with Him, and He will make them “rulers over ten cities.” If chosen for this honor, we will be viceroys, ambassadors, and administrators for the King (Luke 19: 17; Rev. 3: 21; Isa. 2: 2-4).

It’s All about the Kingdom

For 1,300 days, both pre- and post-resurrection, Christ taught exclusively about His Kingdom. He spoke of Himself as a soon-to-be exiled King. His teachings are centered in the government/kingdom of God. His doctrine separates the good and true from the bad and false concepts, ideas, and assumptions of false teachers. By purging the doctrinal errors, He brings His subjects into a closer walk with their King.

The Kingdom is the place where God is growing. His Kingdom is the realm of His influence. He is not fellowshipping with those in error. He commands all people everywhere to repent from what they are doing and who they are serving because the Kingdom is here. Right now the King through His Spirit of truth has taken up residence in the hearts of His saints. His presence is growing and will grow until His kingdom fills the whole earth.

Many Are in Error

Many professing Christians are in error. Christ has harsh words for those who claim to know Him and fail to seek first His kingdom. Again, His kingdom/government is utmost in His mind. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’(Mat. 7: 21-23).

There will be much weeping on that sad day for lukewarm Christians. These professing Christians thought that they were worshipping and serving God. They knew the lingo and the outer trappings, but not Him and His purpose. They will be rejected by Him and they will weep bitter tears. It would have been much better for them to have wept for the widows and orphans and little children who were being slaughtered in the killing fields of this wicked world system—much better had they sobbed and cried out for Him and His kingdom to come and end the injustice and suffering. Much better had they not relied on the pastors’ and preachers’ faulty vision for them.

Nevertheless, upon being rejected, millions of people will try to justify their brand of Christianity to the King Himself! And they will weep in shame after He says to them, “I never knew you.” And why will this happen? Because they did not know Him as He really is! They did not believe the Son’s own witness about Himself, when He commanded us, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” They had Him as a third person of a Trinity; they did not believe that the fullness of the Father dwelt bodily in Christ. They missed it. They missed His oneness; they missed the “Holy One of Israel.” That will be a sad  and dreadful day.

“Only the one who does the will of my Father” will be allowed to enter the kingdom. And what’s the Father’s will? “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life…” And to “believe in Him” one must believe His words, especially His words about Himself, which are these: “The Father is in Me” (John 6: 40; 14: 11). And, of course, this further proves that God is One and not three. Simple belief in what He says about Himself emanating from a clear mind free from false doctrines—that is all He wants us to do. That’s the kingdom walk.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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November 5, 2017 · 4:29 pm

Knowing Christ as He Was in the Beginning

We now realize that God wants to glorify a certain group of Christians for the last days. They will have grown into full maturity; they will no longer act like little children of God who are mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. They are His first fruits. They are called the manifested sons of God; they are the ones for these last days that will fulfill the Father’s purpose of reproducing Himself.

They are the over comers in the church ages of Revelation 2 and 3. They will bear 100 fold spiritual fruit. They will rule with Christ in the Kingdom of God upon His return to earth. They are the “kings” in the phrase “King of kings.”

John refers to spiritual Christian growth levels when he writes to “children, young men, and fathers.” These mature Christians are the fathers. And John writes to the fathers “because you have known Him from the beginning” (I John 2: 13-14).

Knowing Christ as He Was in the Beginning

Brethren, if the Father has laid on our hearts to answer this high heavenly calling and election to be His sons, then we need to know Him that is “from the beginning.” In the gospels, we see the Son of God, the Father clothed in human flesh, loving the people, healing them and teaching them.

But to know Christ “from the beginning,” we must know of His actions and deeds in the beginning. We must go back to that primeval epoch, when on the earth everything “was good” in the Garden of Eden. We must see Him during the Exodus, communing with Moses and sitting on the mercy seat in the old tabernacle. We must see Him in the fiery furnace of Babylon with the Hebrew children and in so many other scenes.

When we know of Christ’s literal exploits on earth in OT times, we are one step closer in being what He wants us to be—one step closer in being His friend like Abraham—one step closer in knowing Him that is from the beginning—one step closer in being a spiritual father—one necessary step closer in becoming a vessel God will use to reproduce Himself in. That is what it is all about. We must decrease so that He can increase in us.

And just who was this Holy Entity that appeared and communed with the prophets and patriarchs hundreds of years before the Son would be born in a manger? That Holy One that was from the beginning, that we believe was made flesh and dwelt among us, we call God.

The Hebrew scriptures declare Him to be Yahweh. Over 6,700 times His name Yahweh appears in the Old Testament. He came to this earth many times bodily, taking a personal interest in His eternal purpose and plan in reproducing Love.  This God, this great Spirit of Love, who poured Himself into a human body and laid down that life willingly, has proven by His resurrection that He is worthy of our praise.

The First and the Last

Christ said that He is the first and the last. The Father Yahweh also said that He is the first and the last (Rev. 1: 11; Isaiah 48: 12). This is the great mystery of the Godhead. This is the one that we must get right in order to grow to full maturity. We must get this in order to “know Him that is from the beginning.”

The Son said that He is the first and the last, and the Father said the same thing. They both cannot be the first and the last. A father by definition is first and then the son is last. How do we solve this mystery? The answer is that the Father and the Son are one. The Son said that they were one.   “I and my Father are one.” The Father is the invisible Spirit, who inhabits His body, the Son. It is Yahweh, the Spirit, the Father, speaking through Isaiah, and it is the invisible Father speaking through the Son in Revelation.

God spoke to us through His prophets in times past, but has in these last days spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1). God spoke to His people through the old prophets with the same Spirit that He spoke to the Israelites through Christ. There is only one God; there is only one Spirit. And God, who is a Spirit, is invisible. Yet, He resides in a spiritual body, His Son.

On the road to Emmaus, Christ after His resurrection appeared unto two men with little faith. They talked to Him, and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24: 27).  These scriptures are the Old Testament, and Christ says that they speak of Him! This proves that the OT scriptures speak of Yahweh-in-human-form—in other words–Christ.

Christ delivered His people many times in the Old Testament; His mercy endures forever. His love carries the same power to heal in every era of time–past, present, and future. Christ’s deeds give universal comfort to all who just believe His report. When we believe that He is the Word made flesh, and contained the Father Yahweh inside His vessel, when we really see Him as He is—then we have seen the Father. We then will know Him that is from the beginning.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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October 21, 2017 · 5:49 pm

Oneness of God–Key to 100 Fold Growth

Newsflash to All Future Manifested Sons of God

The Trinity concept of the Godhead is a grievous error; it is an abominable false doctrine that aspiring sons and daughters of God must repent of. It is ubiquitous in its reach, spread by the minions of the Catholic and Protestant churches. “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible. Neither do the words “three persons.” If we stubbornly cling to this false concept the way its tentacles cling to our minds, our spiritual growth will be stunted, and we will never bear 100 fold spiritual fruit, never be in His inner circle, and never fulfill the royal destiny that we are called to do.

To be like Christ, we must see Him as He really is. We must know Him the way He was and is in the beginning. The Oneness of the Godhead explains all this, and in so doing, it disproves the Trinity.

Children, Young Men, Fathers

The apostle John wrote to all three growth level Christians—30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold, as seen in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. He called them children, young men, and fathers. He gave a specific reason why he was writing unto the spiritually mature fathers. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.

We see here that he makes a definite distinction among little children, young men, and fathers—30, 60, and 100 fold Christians.

The future manifested sons of God for these latter days will be the fathers that John is writing to. You fathers will know Him in a pure unadulterated state—knowledge of the Self-Existent One prior to fallen man’s false concepts about who God is. You fathers, you manifested sons of God, will know Him as He really is and was. There will be no false concepts or imaginations seeping into your minds about the truth of God’s nature and Godhead. You will have purged out all false teachings and the old leaven of man’s thinking as to who God really is and what He is really like and is about. You, sons, will know Him as He is from the beginning. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:3.

The sons of God will not have false concepts of who the Holy One of Israel is. They will, therefore, become just like their Father. Each seed bears its own kind. Like begets like. They will become fathers and, yea, kings on the same throne as their Father King. They will, in fact, be able to engender others with this great power and essence from above. They will have everlasting life generating in and out of their new spiritual bodies. They will be fathers like their heavenly Father. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. John 1:12.

David knew Yahweh well. In fact, Yahweh said that he was a man after God’s own heart. Let’s learn from this pattern son about Him that is from the beginning.

David is pouring his heart out to the Father Yahweh all the way through Psalm 102. He talks to Him throughout, expressing his faith in the great One who created all things. What is astounding about this is that this very same passage is quoted by Paul referring to the Son of God!

“Hear my prayer, O Yahweh” (rendered “LORD” in most versions). Hear me, please, he is saying, in my hour of need, for I am in trouble. His enemies are all around him; he fears for his life. His literal time here on earth is running out; the sun is going down to the dark night of the grave. His flesh is soon to be consumed and turned back to dust. “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.”

But he says that Yahweh (v. 12) shall endure forever. He is from forever and shall go on forever. Yahweh will appear (v. 16) and hear the prayers of His people. “The people that shall be created shall praise Yahweh.”

David Goes Back to the Beginning

 And then David remembers and acknowledges Yahweh as the One who looks down from above and hears our groanings because of our mortal state and comes down to loosen us from this death (vs. 19-20). It is Yahweh who gives us this hope of transcending our mortality. And then David reaffirms his belief in the One who has “laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands” (25).

Paul quotes this very same passage from Psalms in Hebrews 1: 10. He establishes early on that he is talking about Yahshua the Messiah. First he says in verse 2 that Yahshua, Yahweh incarnate, created all things. He mentions the Savior purging our sins (3).   And then he quotes Psalm 102: 25, speaking of the Savior: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.”

Paul is quoting the psalmist who addressed all of 102 to Yahweh. And David said in that psalm that Yahweh created all things. But Paul in Hebrews 1:2 says that the Son created all things. Now there seems to be a contradiction here. If Yahweh, the Father did create all things, then how can Paul, and the apostle John also, say that the Son created all things?

The answer is that both are right. Yahweh did create all things, while He, being the Spirit that He is, resided in the glorified vessel we know as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son. Yahweh, the Spirit/Father dwelt bodily in His “expressed image,” the Son, and created all things through Him. For Yahweh did create all things.

This is the mystery of God. This is the secret; this is the enigma. Our finite natural thinking minds have difficulty in conceiving the answer to this mystery because we want to see two Gods up there. That is the way we deal with this problem as to just who did the creating. If there are two up there, the Father and the Son, then which did the creating of the worlds? The scriptures in many passages state that Yahweh did the creating. And in many other passages, the apostles say that the Son did the creating. So we begin to think, Well, the Father delegated the creating for the Son to do, by just telling Him to do it.

But this is natural thinking. Could we not just as well believe the scriptures and have the Father be this invisible Spirit who resided in a form, a human looking form, a form from which human beings were patterned? And this form with Yahweh the invisible Spirit/Father dwelling within—could not this One God have done the creating? There is no contradiction in this concept of the Creator. Both accounts are correct and do not contradict anything. You have Yahweh inside a special vessel doing the creating. This concept coincides with the scores of times that He is called the “Holy One of Israel.” It confirms all the times that the prophets said that Yahweh is not only the Creator, but also the Savior! It confirms all the times that the NT writers said that the Messiah did the creating. In fact, it does not contradict anything at all.

In this concept of the Godhead, the Father and the Son are one. Is not that what the Messiah said? “I and my Father are one…If you have seen me you have seen my Father.” The Father is in me and is doing the works. This is the central core message that will solve the mystery of God: the eternal Spirit Yahweh was in the Messiah, reconciling the world unto Himself. This is the great mystery solved.

Paul speaks of this mystery of God to the Colossians. He says in chapter 2: 1 that he is concerned. Something is already at work to corrupt the vision of the Holy One of Israel in their eyes. He longs for their hearts to be as one in love, “to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.” Here we have God, the Father, and the Anointed One all mentioned together as making up the mystery. And then he goes on and says that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in the Messiah.

Just what was in the Son? Whatever that was, was “all the treasures.” Christ said that the Father was in Him. Paul said that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Other apostles said that the Son was full of the Spirit of the Father. This is an important point to Paul—for his brothers in Colosse to know this mystery of the Godhead. In fact, he warns in v. 8 for them to beware of the traditions of men that will come in with man’s philosophy and vain deceit. And then he drops the bombshell in v. 9: “For in him (the Messiah) dwells all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

He said all. “All” means that there is not any more to be placed in there. All of the Spirit, all of the Father, all of God, was in the Messiah. But man’s philosophy teaches that the Father is still sitting in heaven in some kind of form watching the proceedings below. Traditions teach us that there are really two up there now. But Paul teaches us that all of the Deity dwelt bodily, that all of the Great Father/Spirit God Almighty was comported about in the body of the Son of God. It is difficult for people today to agree with Paul just as it was hard for the Pharisees and Sadducees to believe, too. It is just unbelief that tricks a heart into not admitting and believing that the Father was fully in Him.

Be that as it may, the mystery of Elohim/God is that the Son has all of the fullness of the Godhead dwelling bodily. For in Messiah all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. Col. 2:9, NIV. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. KJV. For it is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead embodied, and in Him you have been brought to completion. NEB. For in Christ there is all of God in a human body, so you have everything when you have Christ. Living Bible.

No matter how you slice it or dice it in whatever version of the Bible, it still comes out the same. All of Deity was in the Son of God. Period. And the Father Yahweh, the Great Spirit, “was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” Col. 1:19.

Back to Col. 2:3, speaking of Yahshua, Yahweh in human form:   “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge was hid in the Son.” The Father Yahweh, was Himself in the Son, the Anointed vessel who was to carry Yahweh around in on earth.

The mystery is this: Yahweh, the Creator, poured Himself into the Messiah. Everything that that Anointed One did, it was Yahweh Himself doing it. Christ said as much: “The Father that dwells in Me, He does the works” (Jn. 14: 11). Yahweh created everything, in His pre-existent form, which is Yahshua. Yahweh is an invisible Spirit; He is not a man sitting up there. The only place He resides is in the high and lofty place in His Son and with those of a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

This Oneness doctrine enables us to “see Him as He is,” which, in turn, enables us to be like Him. “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (John 3: 3). We shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. And He is the Holy One of Israel, not three.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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June 24, 2017 · 3:42 pm

The Apostles’ Doctrine Prepares Us to Go Inside the Veil

As I share these teachings on the apostles’ doctrine, I remember some 45 years ago when I received the seeds of this knowledge from my mentor. I thank God for him, for the patience he had with me as I exited for good the old life and entered the new life in Christ. I had help; I needed help. I was blessed to not be separated by hundreds and thousands of miles, desperately reaching out through a virtual reality atmosphere for the truth. We were family; we lived in our own community; we worked together every day for years and worked out our problems as a family. It was in this environment that I first learned of the apostles’ doctrine. My teacher with great joy and clarity taught us that and much more [When he passed away I published an elegy that you can read here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/i-will-remember-him-that-way-elegy-for-my-mentor/ ].

After decades of study, which is the watering of those seeds that the Spirit planted by His teacher, I now share that harvest. The harvest of seeds is seeds. I now sow the seed. Never forget: “The parable is this; the seed is the word of God.”

We saw last time that doctrines are teachings. And the doctrine that the apostles had was Christ’s very doctrine. Some people have a big problem with the word “doctrine.” I have heard it said by preachers, “We don’t want doctrine; we just want Jesus.” That is so ignorant, in the pure sense of the word, because the word says, “Whosoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, has not God” (II John 9). We are to not only know what His doctrine is, but we are also to abide in it. “Abide” in the Greek here means “to stay in, to continue in, to remain in.” We are to stay in these teachings. That’s heavy, yet it shows just how important Christ’s teachings are. And the comforting thing is that His apostles have the same doctrine. And the apostles’ doctrine is the very bedrock foundation of God’s house for the latter days.

It is interesting that God uses many different metaphors and similes taken from the everyday life of a farmer, a peasant, a gardener, or a builder. He likens His word to a seed that is sown, which is spoken into the ground or into a person’s ear. And for some, it will take root in their hearts as we see in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. And then He likens His word unto water, living waters delivered by His Spirit. Once a person has tasted the living waters–who has really taken a nice, huge gulp–nothing else on this planet will quench the thirst for the truth. Things of the earth, the material things that appease on a natural level will never suffice a human called by His Maker, for they are created to be the glory of God—a spiritual being.

But when the apostles’ doctrine is taught, many turn away. When repentance from sin is taught, then many begin to walk away. It is a tough one, especially if they believe that they are already in His good graces. And yet, “Repent” was the very first word that our Savior said to every one he met. He said over and over again, “Repent, for the…” For the what? For the “kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is so near that its very King was standing in their midst, and He knew that repentance from sin was their ticket into His kingdom. For no cheats, liars, thieves, and adulterers will reside in His kingdom. Repentance takes care of that. Which is to say, the cross experience takes care of that (more on that later).

Christ’s doctrine solidly in our hearts is the foundation. Only those who are solid and grounded and do not waver when the test comes—these are the ones who will go on to perfection, which is full spiritual maturity. This is when Christ is fully formed in us. These teachings are to be a part of us, yet we will have to leave them eventually in order to go on unto perfection (Heb. 5: 12-14). After a foundation is completed, a builder has to put up the walls, rafters, and roof, and finish the job. He can’t keep monkeying around with the foundation; he will never complete the vision of the architect; he will never finish.

The First Principles

The apostles’ doctrine is the “first principles of the oracles of God.” These teachings are only the first teachings that the elect must have in their heart. They are the milk of the word and not the meat. Though they seem at first glance to be advanced, they really are elementary principles. It is like when we took pre-algebra in grade school, how we thought it was so hard, while it was only just a preliminary to the mathematical pain that would be coming in the next few years.

These teachings are for little children, even “babes in Christ,” who are mostly alive to see what they can receive from their new spiritual Father. But our destiny is not to be little children of God. No. For we have this hope that God will be reproduced within us. And this “hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which enters into that within the veil” (Heb. 6: 18-20). Our Savior Yahshua (Jesus) has already entered into this 100 fold growth as our high priest to guide us on in.

Inside the Veil

“Entering into that within the veil” means going into the 100 fold growth, which is us fully matured spiritually with the Spirit of God manifested in us. It helps our growth to get a glimpse of just what is behind the veil. For the tabernacle in the wilderness, whose construction blueprint was given to Moses by God, serves as types and shadows of the spiritual house of God, “whose house are we.” The apostle escorts us on into these higher realms in Hebrews 6 and 7. Yet he encourages us to leave those very first principles in order to fulfill our calling as a “royal priesthood” (I Pet. 2: 9). We see our calling is to follow in Christ’s footsteps in being that kingly priest, “called after the order of Melchisedec.”

We do not enter this rarified atmosphere of knowledge without great humility, the kind shown in our service to our King Yahshua. He ever lives now to intercede for us when we come to Him with our petitions on this “walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” As our High Priest, we thank Christ for obtaining for us a better covenant that has purged our “conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9: 9-14). No more recriminations, nor guilt, nor shame. No more guilty consciences, for He has wiped the slate clean. This is the fruit of the very first apostles’ doctrine—repentance from sin.

There is much to see inside the tabernacle, which is “the example and shadow of heavenly things.” The old covenant of the blood of animals only purified the “patterns of things in the heavens…but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (Heb. 9: 23). What is a better sacrifice than the blood of animals? The blood of the Lamb of God “that takes away the sins of the world.” So Christ’s blood cleanses whom? Human beings, who are the “heavenly things themselves.”

We are heavenly things, brethren. With Christ’s Spirit now within us, we are heavenly beings, not carnal and of the earth. We are spiritual beings now. And we need to walk in this truth. For this truth is an example of what we will get into after the apostles’ doctrine is solid in our hearts. This is where the Spirit wants to take us. The question is this: Can we dispel our doubts long enough to hear His voice. Can we humble our human minds long enough to receive from a teacher, who really is the Spirit of Truth in a human body. But when the Spirit of Truth is come, He will teach us all things. He does not just mystically float around willy-nilly seeking whom He may inspire. He resides in His teachers, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors.

Inside the Veil

“Let us go on to perfection” [spiritual maturity]. Let us go on to where Christ wants us—inside the veil, sitting with Him. Wait a minute—get this—sitting down with Him on His throne!

This is His vision, which will attack our meager belief system until we fully believe this: “All things are possible to him that believes.” Belief, which is faith, is the second of the apostles’ doctrine.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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April 23, 2017 · 6:47 pm

When Is Christ Coming Back? Much to Do Before He Returns

Everybody would like to know when He is returning to this ravaged earth. We need Him badly to bring peace to the land. Christians have been wondering about this for 2,000 years.

I cannot give you a date, but I can give you the state of the spiritual growth of the members of His body, the church, at the time of His return to earth. Christ will only come back when the stage is set, when all things are ready. When His followers attain a very mature state of spiritual growth, then He will come back.

Dates are futile to set; history has proven this out many times. Many well-meaning Christians have been shipwrecked on the seas of disappointment when Christ did not come back on a certain date.

But nowhere in the Bible does it say that we cannot know the cultural and spiritual milieu of the time of His return and the end of the age. In fact, Christ and His apostles gave us ample warning as to the signs of the time of the end.

What is the spiritual environment in the church just before He returns. The body of believers will be mature, walking in power like the early church. They will not be like children, sitting in the pews, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” Spiritual children can be tricked and deceived by the devil working through other men. But that won’t be happening because God has given His five offices–apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers–to help us, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 11-14).

We are going to have some real spiritual powerhouses in the church before Christ returns. We will have  some Peters and Pauls and Johns and some Daniels and Isaiahs. Men of God with serious growth will be found among God’s people. They will be spiritually feeding the body of Christ strong meat and not the milk of the word. “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 12-14). From these two passages, we see that spiritually young Christians are prey to false doctrines taught by deceivers. The church will have mature members of the body operating.

For when Christ returns, He will present the church, which is His body, “a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” “Spot” is translated from a Greek word meaning a “defect, a disgrace” (G4696 in Strong’s). “Wrinkle” signifies an imperfection. I do not believe that Christian churches are anywhere near this state of mature spiritual growth.

In the parable of the Tares in the Field, He told the workers to “let both grow together until time of the harvest.” If you pull up the tares, the children of the devil, it will root up the children of God, too. Harvest time is the time of the end when Christ returns. Both the children of the devil and the children of God will be maturing at the same time, the time of the end. They will produce the man of sin, the Anti-Christ; our side will produce the aforementioned five fold ministry offices of God like Peter, Paul, and John (See https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/children-of-the-wicked-one-tares-in-the-field/).

Brothers and sisters, we have some growing to do! We need to stop circling that same old mountain the way the children of Israel did, just messing around, not walking in faith, waiting for the preacher to do it. Lack of faith in His promises stunts our growth. We need to grow up! into Christ! And we need to do it now because of this one thing: Christ is not coming back until a remnant of His people have grown to the point that they are fully matured and can withstand the onslaught of the fully matured children of Satan.

The end of this age will come when all the actors for the last scene are ready and are fully matured and know their lines and places. Instead of looking for a place and time to escape the harvest vis-a-vis the rapture, we should be striving to study and grow to become a fully matured Christian. For that is who He is coming back for.

Until we all see a fully grown remnant step forth and lead the charge for Christ like the early apostles, we wish for escape in vain. We have much to learn and to do to get ready. That is our task now. First, learn of His plan and purpose. Second, do what He commands us to do. Then the end will come; then He can return.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Be sure to order your free copy of my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It details God’s purpose of reproducing Himself and His plan to get it done. If we want to grow, then this knowledge is of the essence. To order send your mailing address to my email  wayneman5@hotmail.com . Put “new book” in the address line.

It comes out May 20th or thereabouts. It is free to you with free shipping in the USA. Overseas shipping is $20; the book is still free. The book is my magnum opus, my love gift to you all; my hope is Christ in you, that He would grow and grow and grow.}

 

 

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Filed under agape, children of God, church, elect, eternal purpose, false doctrines, false teachers, glorification, Parables, perfection, spiritual growth

April 1, 2017 · 3:55 pm

God’s Five Offices Are for Your Perfection

{This is another excerpt from my new book The Royal Destiny of God’s Elect. It will be out this spring. I want to get this book into as many interested hands as I can, so I am offering it totally free to my readers. The book is free; the shipping is free in the USA. All I need is your prayers and your mailing address. Don’t worry. Your mailing address is safe with me. Please send it to my email address: wayneman5@hotmail.com   On subject line write “New Book.”}

The notion that all Christians are God’s little lambs and will remain as such is a false concept. For God has set some members in the body as “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” These five offices are God’s gifts to His church, and they are not lambs nor little children.

Moreover, they are given to us by God to accomplish three certain things: “the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4: 11-15). Perfecting? One may ask. It means here “maturing.” When we come to Christ, we receive the seed, the word of God into our hearts. Through proper watering and nourishment the seed will grow and finally mature. The five offices of God help the members of the body of Christ grow spiritually and mature unto perfection. They show us the way of how to minister God’s light and truth to this world. And they build us up spiritually, feeding us with the truth of God’s purpose for this walk.

Now all of God’s children are important to Him. But He knows that some will mature faster in His plan than others. So He sends those who have matured first—by His grace—back to the others to nourish and help them on their walk with the Father.

Yet some Christians reject the idea of the manifested sons of God. They think that we are all equal and that there should not be one stone above another in the temple of God. The thought of having “super-Christians” walking the earth does not set well with some. But the fact that God has set these five offices in His body to help the church members achieve perfection and maturity shows that some Christians mature spiritually faster than others. And we are equally loved by our Father.

The five offices are a gift from God to us, and they will help the members of God’s body “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (4: 13). They will be with us, helping us, “till we all come…unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” All of us true Christians will grow into the fullness of Christ, that we all “may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ.” Don’t be shaken just because some Christians will mature faster than others. Just love them and help them because we all are going to make it.

These five offices help us become one with the Father’s vision. They will teach us how the Father is using His incarnation in the Son to work out His plan of deliverance for the inhabitants of the world. And they will teach us how to grow spiritually to the point that we become like Peter, James, John, and Paul. These four matured earlier than others. In our day some will do the same, but we are all growing up into Him.

That is what these five offices in the body of Christ will do and continue to do till we all get there. They are powered by God, who has that much faith in His own power to change us into dynamos of spiritual energy so that we like Christ can do the same works—greater works even—than what the Master Himself did. God’s faith is not in our old selves, but in the Spirit of Christ now in us—to do the growing and maturing.

How Will We Know If We’ve Found One of These Five Offices of God?

How will you know? Do they speak of you being like the Savior? Are you being edified and built up with the grand vision that the apostles and prophets spoke of? Do you feel like you are starving for the meat of the word? Do they speak about growing up to be like Christ?

If they are not doing this, then you need to ask God to lead you to a place that will feed your heart and soul. “You will know them by their fruit.” “Fruit” is that which is produced by your spiritual leader. If what they speak about is themselves, then run, for they can only take you to where they are. Run. Get out.

“Seek and ye shall find.” Seek God for His five offices to be a part of your life. You will know you have found one when their teachings line up with these criteria:

  • They will teach that God’s righteousness enters into us along with our new heart that sin in our life died on the cross when Christ died there. And with His resurrection, we too enter a new life of righteousness.
  • They will teach that we can grow to be just like the apostles and Christ.
  • They will speak often of the kingdom of God being a real kingdom with Christ as King, coming back to this earth, replacing the evil of the world system.
  • They will build you up with truth, pulling no punches.
  • They will call out the old leaven doctrines of the denominations, showing their fallacies in light of His word.
  • They will show the way, lighting the path for us.
  • They will share the knowledge of God’s secrets of His purpose and plan of reproducing Love.

And when you find one who teaches the truth, by faith step out there and follow them and pray for them, and help them through your spiritual support. And remember: You’ll know them by their fruit.

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December 10, 2016 · 6:59 pm

Belief–The Key to Growing into the Manifestation of the Sons of God

Life is all about love and belief. It is all about believing the love that God showed to us when He had His Son give up His life to ransom us from the darkness of sin.

The “Life” we speak of is not the selfish little mortal life we first knew here on earth. No, we speak now about the life that  is in the Son of God. We speak of life without end, eternal life, life everlasting. Eternal life is the only true life, for life is not really life if it can die.

In order to exchange our first natural, mortal life for the eternal life that God is and wants for us, He merely requires us to just believe Him and have faith in His word concerning all this.

Our belief in His death [the death of our old life], His burial [the burial of our old life], and His resurrection [our being “raised to walk in a newness of life“] is the key. God has ordained belief to be the spark of spiritual energy that surges into our hearts, igniting the fire of life, causing us to begin to grow spiritually.

Like sunshine in spring upon the moist earth energizes the seed to awaken to its potential, even so we now spring to life in the garden of the King. In believing Him, we become His plants, flourishing in watered terraces, bearing the fruits of love, compassion, and justice for all to enjoy. For we are those trees He speaks of, trees planted by the river of life. Oh, how we should thank Him! And the sincerest form of thanks is belief.

Belief of God Is Elemental

We humans are created beings. Our origin, therefore, comes not from our own volition, but from the mind of a Superior Being who wanted us to be, to have life. Consequently, our sole responsibility is to believe the One who says that He is the Word. We are to believe His words. Belief is elemental and seminal in this walk on earth.

Belief, rendered “faith” in many verses, is profound, yet simple. In fact, the profound things of God, the mysteries, riddles, parables, precepts, and the puzzling enigmas that have perplexed prophets and wise men, and beggars and kings–they remain profoundly simple.

Remember the simplicity of the innocence of a little child that Christ spoke about? Unencumbered by the adult mind, the child believes simply. But man’s wisdom blunts the human mind like the granite rock dulls the sword that dares to strike it. The rock and the sword are not for each other. They are out of place, out of time. Such is the mind of old man Adam when endeavoring to comprehend the things of God.

Such are the mysteries of the mind of God. But childlike belief opens them up to our understanding. It is like when a child of three years plucks the petals of his first daisy or smells his first red rose. He does not need the botanist to analyze their parts. He needs no chart or graph depicting how to cultivate them. As the flower’s fragrance enters the child’s nostrils, he understands, yea, believes in the beauty and simplicity of the rose. He inhales its grace and its love. Of such belief, is the kingdom of heaven.

In like manner, let us savor the truth about how the Spirit grows within us to the point of God reproducing Himself. But it will take a childlike belief of God’s word, free from all doubt.

The “Greater Works”

As Christians we have wondered how it would be to have the same power to do good as the apostles of the early church. Through the Spirit, they raised the dead and healed the sick and did many astounding miracles. Whole denominations today have as their main purpose a return to the power of those early days.

Did Christ ever speak about this kind of growth? Did He ever promise us that we could grow to this point in Him? to do what He and His disciples did?

Yes, He did. He said, “He that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…” (John 14: 12). There it is. “Belief” is right there. The person that believes on Him shall do not only the works of Christ, but “greater works” than what He did. It’s there in irrefutable black and white.

But wait. There’s a problem here. Hundreds of millions of believers of Christ are out there. Why aren’t we all raising the dead and healing the sick and doing these “greater works” that He promised? We believe that He not only existed as an historical figure, but that He also is the Son of God and that He arose from the dead. Why don’t we have the power of the early apostles?

To find out what the words “he that believes on Me” mean, we must back up to John 14: 1. Christ tells his disciples, You believe in God; believe in Me, also. In our Father’s house are many abodes, many dwelling places. I am going now to prepare a place for you to dwell. I’ll return and you will be with Me. You know where I am going. And you know the way (1-4).

Thomas then asks Him the famous question. We do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way to the Father (v. 5). Christ replies, “I am the way.” I am the way; I am the traveled road, that will get you to the Father. “I am the truth.” I won’t steer you wrong with bad directions on your road to the Father. I am full of grace and truth for all seekers of the divine. “I am the life.” Life dwells in Me. That is the truth. That is the way to the Father. In fact, “no man comes to the Father but by Me” (v. 6).

How to Believe on Christ

In John 14, Christ is, no less, telling us how to believe on Him so that we can do the “greater works”!

He is saying, You can’t get to the Father without Me. Besides, If you really knew Me, you would know My Father also. And from now on, after this teaching that I am giving you, you know the Father and you have seen Him (v. 7).

Christ is saying, Right now you are seeing the Father, who is an invisible Spirit, dwelling in the abode of His Son. Then Philip says to Him, If You will just show us the Father, we’ll be satisfied and contented (v. 8).

I am persuaded that Christ just shook his head and said, I have been with you for a long time and you don’t know Me? If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The Father dwells inside of Me, and He speaks the words through Me and does the works (vs. 9-10).

Christ in v. 11 is pleading with us, imploring us, commanding us: “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” Christ is “in the Father” because He is doing His will perfectly. The Son is a vessel, then, that is in the Father, in the Spirit. And the Father, in turn, is also in the Son as that same one invisible Spirit. Christ is saying, The miracles that I have been performing, only the Father can do, so believe what I am saying to you about the Father being now present with you in Me.

The above is the prologue to Christ’s promise to us that we will do greater miracles than what He and His disciples did (John 14: 12). This is an astounding promise that is predicated on our understanding of the following: “He that believes on Me, the works I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall He do.”

“Believes on Me…” With the promise of growing up to become like–I am going to say it–like Christ, what do these three words mean? What kind of belief in Christ are we talking about here? We must believe that Christ is in the Father, and the Father is in Him. The invisible Spirit of Love, the Creator Himself, “dwelt bodily” in Christ. They are not sitting on two thrones; they are not a Twinity. Christ sits right now with the Father still inside of His vessel. The Father is invisible. The scriptures tell us this (Col. 1: 15; I Tim. 1: 17).

The question is this. Can we smell this rose as a little child? Can we simply believe, not my words, but Christ’s very own words: “The Father is in Me.” If we can believe on Christ this way, in child like faith, then our growth in Him is limitless.The great Yahweh, walking around in human form, left us with this commandment: Believe Me that I am in My Son. If we keep this commandment, nothing shall be impossible for us.      Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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December 3, 2016 · 6:21 pm

The Word of God–Spirit, Life, Light, and Wisdom

When we hear the phrase, “the word of God,” most of us think of the book, the Holy Bible. The  Bible is our precious library of books inspired by the Spirit of God, written down by certain foreordained men of God. That is true. All of us seekers of truth have benefited greatly by the efforts of those who made the Bible happen.

However, the Holy Bible is but a repository of the inspired spiritual words that God spoke originally out of His heart.

The future manifested sons and daughters of God must get back, back, back to the beginning, before the word of God ever appeared on the printed page, back before it was committed as ink stains on fragile scrolls, back even before the word of God was transmitted orally, when Noah told of God’s plan and purpose to Shem, and so on down orally to his offspring like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

For the Word of God is alive; it contains the very thoughts and longings of the Father’s heart. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6: 63). These words were spoken by the Word Himself, who “was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” (John 1: 14). He spoke words comprised of His thoughts; He spoke truth because He is the truth (1: 17). He spoke words explaining His plan for us and all the earth. And these words that He speaks now enter our ears and seep down into our encrusted hearts, and they bring life to the spiritually dead.

For His words are life itself. They are the very breath of everlasting life. They are a spirit that makes us alive unto Him; they are spirit and life for us mortals. And this life is  contained in His words, which are spirit; they are our light. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” And this light now shines on into the darkness of men’s hearts, and they do not comprehend Him, for He is the “true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” He is the Light, for He reveals God’s purpose and plan (John 1: 4-9).

His Words Are Spirit

The words that came out of the mouth of the Son of God are spirit and life. A God given curiosity compels me to ask, How are spoken words spirit? Fair question. Going to the Greek in Strong’s, “spirit” is translated from “pneuma” meaning “wind, breeze, breath.” It is from a root word meaning “to blow, to breathe.”

How are audible words formed? We literally create the spoken word by breathing air over the voice box, thus producing sound through the vibration of our vocal cords. We humans speak all kinds of words this way. But when we speak God’s words, divine words, holy words, His thoughts–then we breathe His Spirit. For His words are spirit and they are life.

We are admonished to speak the word of God, His words. “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Mt. 10: 20). The prophet Ezekiel is told by God several times to speak to the children of Israel, and what comes out of his mouth? The word of God.

The Word of Wisdom

If we study His word with true knowledge, then He will give us words to speak. The very first “gift of the Spirit” happens to be the “word of wisdom” (I Cor. 12: 8). It enables us to speak His thoughts about being in reverential awe of not only His majesty, but of His purpose and plan of reproducing Himself. He will reveal in a word to us  His great heart in sharing Himself with us.

But the time grows short. People sit like orphans in the dark streets of despair, hungering and thirsting for the truth. We must all share the portion of the truth that we have. We must not let His knowledge expire with our last breath in human flesh.

For our appointed time for the death of our old corruptible, decaying, earthly bodies fast approaches. We His children must share what we have while the sands of time still flow through the hourglass. We are channels and not the objects of His blessings. For knowledge of the holy things is the richest blessing our ears can hear.

Wisdom. Ask one thousand people what it is and you will receive one thousand different definitions. Philosophy cannot tell you what wisdom is, for it prattles on vainly about how much it loves (philos) wisdom (sophia), but it has never met her. Imagination cannot tell you, for it only projects images conjured up by the faux genius of earthly man’s mind.

And yet, the word of wisdom is the very first “gift of the Spirit” that God gives us to give to others. But it is not a mystical unction bestowed upon us from on high. We must seek to know what wisdom is–according to what the word of God says it is. Most do not know that wisdom is being in reverential awe of God. I repeat: Wisdom is being in reverential awe of God ( https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality-chapter-2/ ).

Most professing Christians have one of three thoughts about the gifts of the Spirit. Some just don’t know that they exist. Others say that the “gifts of the Spirit” are not for modern times, thus limiting God’s power through unbelief. Another group are just the opposite; they “catch on fire” for God and immediately clamor for the power to perform miracles and healings.

The reality is that the gifts of the Spirit are real and are being given to His people. But they are given to us “decently and in order.” The first two gifts that God gives us is the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. Without them the new Christian will not grow spiritually. They will be stunted children, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness” (Eph. 4: 14).

We must be rooted and grounded in His word. We must dig deep and put our spiritual house on the Rock. We must seek deeply “that we may be filled with all the fulness of God.” We must see and believe the Word, our Savior, savoring just where His words of glory came from–the Beginning. “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1: 1).   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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